Anyone know what's going on at the high school this morning?

Fire drill? Fire? Something else?

Facebook group is saying its a fire drill

We have a Facebook group called "Columbia High School Families" - please join if you are not already a member.

I am a member. No one there knows; fire drill was a guess, which makes less sense on a half day

Fire drill

I'm obviously NOT an official spokesperson, but it was NOT a drill. We were told there was an odor and smoke conditions in several classrooms, which necessitated the evacuation. MFD/MPD checked the scene, did whatever they needed to do, and we were eventually given the all clear to return to the building. Students were to remain in ( i.e. return to ) Period 8. Period 9 was cancelled and students were dismissed at 12:06.

Yes, spouse said she noticed what looked like a lot of high school students walking home while driving down Valley about an hour ago.

Here: https://www.tapinto.net/articles/columbia-high-school-evacuated-briefly-today

http://villagegreennj.com/schools-kids/columbia-high-school-evacuated-burning-odor/

Columbia High School was evacuated for 40-minutes during school hours today due to a “burning odor.” Principal Elizabeth Aaron wrote in an email message to parents and guardians (see below) that the Maplewood Fire Department determined the source “and the building was cleared our alarms were reset as per emergency procedures before we re-entered the building to resume our day.”

District spokeswoman Suzanne Turner added, “The odor was caused by the interaction between a supervised science experiment and our vent system. Students were evacuated as a precautionary measure, and were quickly readmitted to the building once the fire department confirmed there was no risk.”